Sen. Allen staffers assault local blogger

Mike Stark, a blogger, Marine veteran, constituent and first-year law student at the University of Virginia, walked up to Sen. George Allen (R-VA) after a rally in Charlottesville this morning, and asked the senator to release his arrest records and confirm or deny reports that he spit on or otherwise assaulted his first wife. In response, Stark was assaulted himself.

As the TV footage shows, Stark was tackled by Allen staffers who slammed him head-first into a glass wall before dragging him out of the Omni Hotel. Stark intends to file charges.

Stark was not a “protester” as the news clip reports. He is a blogger and citizen journalist — just like me. Allen had gone to the lobby to field questions from the media, and Stark had as much of a right to be there as any other member of the press. And he certainly had the right not to be physically assaulted by Allen’s thugs.

Allen has a reputation for using violent metaphors, famously saying of Democrats in 1994: “Let’s enjoy knocking their soft teeth down their whiny throats.” Well this time, some of his staffers decided to take him literally.

Right-wingers intentionally choose violent rhetoric like this because they want to intimidate the opposition. And when words don’t work, eventually some of their loyalists will attempt to follow up with action. This is thuggery. This is the stuff of fascism.

What we have witnessed today is a crime, the grounds for a lawsuit, and I hope, the end of Sen. Allen’s political career.

“RICHMOND, Va. (Nov. 1) – A heckler who confronted Sen. George Allen at a campaign appearance Tuesday was put in a chokehold and slammed to the floor by three of the Republican’s supporters in an incident captured on video.

“Mike Stark, a liberal blogger and first-year University of Virginia law student, approached Allen at an event in Charlottesville, loudly asking, ‘Why did you spit at your first wife, George?’ according to witnesses.

“Three men, all wearing blue Allen lapel stickers, immediately grabbed Stark, dragged him backward and slung him to the carpet outside a hotel meeting room, according to video captured by WVIR-TV in Charlottesville.

“Allen’s campaign said in a news release that Stark ‘aggressively went after Senator Allen … screaming that he answer inappropriate questions.’

“It also said Stark pushed an Allen staffer. ‘Later, volunteers restrained him (Stark) and asked (him) to leave the building when he approached the Senator a second time, asking inappropriate questions.’ …

“In a Monday posting on ‘Calling All Wingnuts,’ the blog Stark publishes, he hinted that he would attempt to provoke Allen before the TV cameras. …

“In August, Stark similarly approached Allen after a speech at a hotel near Staunton, loudly asking if he had ever used a common six-letter epithet against blacks. … ”

This article is excerpted under the Fair Use doctrine. For complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/y34x7y

Roger Rabbit Comment: This news story sure doesn’t read like it was written by someone who’s got it in for Sen. Allen! I guess the so-called “liberal bias” in the media is just a myth huh.

It also appears the attack on Stark was premeditated. They obviously knew who he was from previous encounters. Seems strange that three guys would all spontaneously jump him at the same time … it’s reminiscent of the obviously pre-arranged attack on protesters at the Republican National Convention when Republican “volunteers” carried out an organized and orchestrated (and violent) assault on protesters. http://tinyurl.com/y8wa9k

And these guys wonder why we call them “Nazis.” Because they behave like Nazis, that’s why! Du-uh.

“I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it.”

”
With the election just eight days away, there are no signs that this wave is abating. Barring a dramatic event, we are looking at the prospect of GOP losses in the House of at least 20 to 35 seats, possibly more, and at least four in the Senate, with five or six most likely.

If independents vote in fairly low numbers, as is customary in midterm elections, losses in the House will be on the lower end of that range. But if they turn out at a higher than normal level, their strong preference for Democrats in most races would likely push the GOP House losses to or above the upper levels.”

The left will scrape the bottom to avoid asking John Kerry to apologize to the troops – once again. Commentby Jim-penis-in-mouth-Webb— 10/31/06@ 2:19 pm

Why should Kerry apologize to the troops for insulting Bush? The insult is well deserved. Bush is the uneducated idiot who got the troops stuck in Iraq. Bush apologists like you should kiss the troops’ feet. Tell me again how Republicans “support the troops” when Cher has to ask for private donations to buy helmets for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan?

By the way, I donated $99 to http://www.operation-helmet.org/ — did you? If you didn’t, you don’t support the troops, you’re just blowing smoke out of your ass. Put up or shut up.

Waddell, who lives in California, said she and Allen divorced more than 22 years ago, and because it was a personal matter they sealed the divorce records…

In a Monday posting on “Calling All Wingnuts,” the blog Stark publishes, he hinted that he would attempt to provoke Allen before the TV cameras.

“Im also trying to `Roger and Me’ George Allen whenever I can,” Stark wrote, referring to director Michael Moore’s 1989 documentary in which he repeatedly tried to confront former General Motors’ chief executive Roger Smith about the company’s downsizing.

In 1979 you famously wrote a piece questioning the Army’s embrace of females in combat situations. Later you criticized what you saw as hysteria in the aftermath of the Navy’s Tailhook scandal. Do you have any second thoughts on those issues?

My view then, and the decibel level was loud on all sides back in 1979 with the Carter administration. The Carter administration had just ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to support a political policy that did not exist. They had ordered them to support removing the ban on women in combat. That’s when I wrote that piece. And the commandant of the Marine Corps at that time, Robert Barrow, who is one of my all-time Marine heroes, stood up to them. He called me after he had done it. He basically said that the deputy secretary of defense had given them that order and they had all smartly saluted except for Barrow. He said I do not believe that is a legal order, I’m going to have my counsel check on it. If it is a legal order, I’m going to explain to the Congress the circumstances under which I’m obeying it. And they backed off. But that’s how high the decibel level was and how much the political intrusion in the military was going on at the time.

But what was your position?

When I was secretary of the Navy, I opened up more billets to women than any secretary of the Navy in history. But we did it the right way. I got my warfare chiefs, the three warfare chiefs, to go down and examine inside their own specialties where women should be absorbed. I had them then report to the chief of naval operations. And then the chief of naval operations reported to me. I had the uniform side make the decisions, the recommendations, and then bring them to me. This wasn’t me standing up there pontificating because I was a civilian official. So when this has been done in a rational way where it works, I fully support it. When it’s an intrusion from the outside, I think that not only I but other people should have questions. So where it is now? I think that from what I can see from a distance it’s working well.

You were secretary of the Navy in the last couple of years of the Reagan administration. You resigned over a matter of policy, specifically budget cuts which began pulling the Navy away from the Reagan administration’s goal of a 600-ship Navy. Now we have about a 290-ship Navy…

James Webb is the real deal – a combat veteran, a former Marine. I don’t agree with everything he says and does – he’s a bit too conservative for me on some issues. But he should do well representing a conservative state like Virginia.

DES MOINES, Iowa A Democratic Congressional candidate from Iowa is canceling a campaign event later this week with Senator John Kerry. Brucy Braley says Kerry’s recent comments about the Iraq war were inappropriate.

Braley is running against Republican Mike Whalen in Iowa’s First District congressional race. It’s a contest considered to be one of the most competitive House races in the country.

Braley’s decision to distance himself from Kerry came as a furor grew from comments Kerry made about the Iraq War during a campaign stop in California on Monday.

Kerry said if you make the most of your education, you “can do well.” The Democrat went on to say that is you don’t, (quote) “you get stuck in Iraq.”

The remarks prompted sharp criticism from some Republicans, including President Bush and Arizona Senator John McCain.

Funny, the Republicans didn’t have a problem with Webb when he was a Republican and Secty of the Navy under the Reagan administration. Now that he’s a Democrat, they think he’s suddenly got moral and character flaws which make him unsuitable for national office?

When the comments were made doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that he has refused to apologize for years. I watched a debate with him and Allen and Webb doesn’t apologize because he still has an attitude about females, it was very obvious.

As for him opening up female billets, he was forced to – period. Congress, the President and DACOWITS made the services integrate women.

No, whatever Allen has done isn’t ok either. Apologies go along way…….. I’m not getting why the hell these stubborn politicians who won’t apologize, and there’s a lot of them.

Check out the Reichert link:
“Dave Reichert knew for weeks in 1996 that a sergeant under his command was meddling in a felony arson investigation, but kept him on the job despite a policy that would have allowed Reichert to remove him, according to interviews and court documents.”

“He said: ‘You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.’

“That, Kerry said, was meant as a reference to Bush, not troops. Kerry said it is the president who owes U.S. soldiers an apology — for ‘a Katrina foreign policy’ that misled the country into war in Iraq … has not properly equipped troops and has expanded the terrorist threat.

“‘I’m sick and tired of a bunch of despicable Republicans who will not debate real policy, who won’t take responsibility for their own mistakes, standing up and trying to make other people the butt of those mistakes,’ he said. ‘It disgusts me that a bunch of these Republican hacks who’ve never worn the uniform of our country are willing to lie about those who did.'”

Quoted from news sources under the Fair Use doctrine. You got a problem with it? Go fuck yourself!

Gee, someone who served as a Secty of the Navy under the Reagan administration, a Vietnam combat veteran, and a fiscal conservative –

No wonder the Bush administration doesn’t like James Webb, and know that he will be real trouble for them in the Senate!

Now, if Republicans are so pro-military and their families, why do they try to viscously smear combat veterans like Kerry, Murtha, and Webb, who merely point out that their policies are idiotic? I guess if I were in the Bush administration, pursuing it’s policies, I wouldn’t want somebody like Webb looking over my shoulder, either.

I discovered James Webb as an author a couple of years ago, last summer I read his book “Born Fighting – the Scots-Irish in America”. At the time I was trying to research a historical query, of why so many Confederate soldiers, primarily of Scots-Irish heritage, fought for the Confederacy despite being overwhelmingly non-slaveholders.

When I learned of his bio, and also heard (from other sources) that he was considering running for public office, I thought “Dang. I’d vote for him, but he’s probably going to run as a Republican.”

But despite having served in the Reagan administration (or pehaps because he did), Webb ran as a Democrat, returning to his “Southern Democrat” roots.

“Growing numbers of American military officers have begun to privately question a key tenet of U.S. strategy in Iraq — that setting a hard deadline for troop reductions would strengthen the insurgency and undermine efforts to create a stable state. The Iraqi government’s refusal to take certain measures to reduce sectarian tensions between Sunni Arabs and the nation’s Shiite Muslim majority has led these officers to conclude that Iraqis will not make difficult decisions unless they are pushed. Therefore, they say, the advantages of deadlines may outweigh the drawbacks.

I’ve seen the video.
My producer showed it to me before the show, and we both watched it together. I pointed it out, and we both agreed,
it looked to us like this guy, this Stark guy was faking it.
I mean the tackle, faking the tackle. It’s exactly like the way soccer players fake it. You know. Someone just touches them and they start flopping around on the ground. It’s just ridiculous.

“We all obeyed George. If we didn’t, we knew he would kill us. Once, when Bruce refused to go to bed, George hurled him through a sliding glass door. Another time, when Gregory refused to go to bed, George tackled him and broke his collarbone. Another time, when I refused to go to bed, George dragged me up the stairs by my hair.” [Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach’s Daughter, page 22]

“James Webb is the real deal – a combat veteran, a former Marine. I don’t agree with everything he says and does – he’s a bit too conservative for me on some issues. But he should do well representing a conservative state like Virginia.”

He is also a man who fantazises about fathers putting boy’s penises in their mouths.

“A Vietnam vet who interviewed U.S. Senate candidate Jim Webb for a newspaper article in 1983 says the Democrat told him of college pranks he took part in 20 years earlier in which racial epithets were used and guns pointed at African Americans on the streets of Watts.

Webb described taking drives through the black neighborhood of Watts, where he and members of his ROTC unit used racial epithets and pointed fake guns at blacks to scare them.

“They would hop into their cars, and would go down to Watts with these buddies of his,” Cragg said Webb told him. “They would take the rifles down there. They would call then [epithets], point the rifles at them, pull the triggers and then drive off laughing. One night, some guys caught them and beat . . . them. And that was the end of that.”

For anybody believing that John Kerry insulted the troops, that’s like George Bush announcing he’s a pro-choice evolutionist who made some very serious mistakes in Iraq.

Use your brains. It doesn’t make any sense. Kerry has always been a supporter of the troops.
How about asking Bush about increasing death benefits for out soldiers. How about asking Bush about supporting the troops when they come home? Hypocrites.

“Right-wingers intentionally choose violent rhetoric like this because they want to intimidate the opposition.”

Goldy gives right wingers way too much credit.

They’re not bullies…just look at obviously broken men like JCH, Puddy and Anonymous.

These cowards had their manhoods snapped by their sick & twisted daddies early on in life. Half of ‘em become Christians just so they can have ONE PERSON IN THE WORLD who can theoretically love and forgive them.

The “short guy complex” bullying is just an obvious attempt at over-compensating for their weakness.

Where do you think Sen. Allen got his “go back to where you came from” racism? From his mom?

29
I know you’re slow to grasp concepts, but how can you possibly fail to understand that bringing the troops home alive shows support for them? Letting them die for elusive, evolving, and partisan objectives shows contempt for them. In demanding that they stay in Iraq, you show your true colors as contemptuous of the troops. Those who support Bush’s Iraq position, to the extent he has one anymore, are the worst kind of American: those who are willing to exchange the lives of fellow citizens to advance and protect the interests of politicians. You are a shameful piece of shit.

Rove and his minions on this board are just taking a quote of Kerry out of context for the purpose of deflecting attention from their own failures. The left does not hate our troops, never has.

Not that anything we say here will cause them to change their tune. They are not saying it because it is true, and they are not even saying it because they believe it to be true. If they believed it to be true, then they would have to address Democrats like Kerry, Murtha, and Webb who are true combat veterans, not the chickenhawks who run the Bush administration.

They are only saying it for political purposes, they hope a few misguided individuals will believe them. What else can they talk about? Their success in Iraq? The economy? Balancing the budget? Their superior management and efficiency in providing disaster relief?

George Allen is a pig. He is an embarrassment to the Senate. His answer to the age-old question, “When did you stop beating your wife?” is “When she sued me for divorce.” I’m sure all you Republicans are proud of Allen. That shows how deep you all have fallen into partisan blindness. Keep your blinders on, nitwits.

57: Shortly after WWII, in a small county outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, returning WWII veterans found that the county had been taken over by the sheriff and his jack-booted deputies. One of the WWII veterans decided to run against the sheriff in the next election. In the days prior to the election, political signs were torn down, people distributing pamplets for the challenger were beaten up and arrested on trumped-up charges. Everyone predicted lots of trouble come election day. They were not wrong.

Voters appearing at the polls noticed that although the polls had just opened, the ballot boxes were almost full. Election watchers who challenged the boxes and insisted they be removed and new boxes brought in were taken out and beaten. Crowds appeared at the polling places and it was starting to get ugly. The polls were closed in the early afternoon, by order of the Sheriff, and the ballot boxes were placed in sheriff’s cars for transport to the County Sheriff’s office for counting. When citizens insisted on observing the count, the doors were locked and the deputies ordered the streets cleared, threatening to fire on the crowd with shotguns.

That’s when the WWII veterans decided that enough was enough. The went home and got their guns. They formed a disciplined assault on the courthouse to get the ballots, using tactics they had perfected in Europe and the Pacific. Several of them would lay down a covering fire, while one crawled close enough to lob a stick of dynamite at the door. “The next one’s going through the window!” he warned.

Through the wrecked door filed the sheriff’s deputies, hands held high. But the Sheriff had managed to get away earlier, with the ballot boxes in back of a truck. He made it to Chattanooga, where he pleaded with the Sheriff of Hamilton County to protect him. The Hamilton County Sheriff called the TBI instead, and the Sheriff was the one who was arrested. The Chancery Court judge ruled the entire election was void, and a new one was held.

I was there in Charlottesville when that agitator pansy Stark was tackled by the Senator’s loyal Pretorian Guard.
It was a righteous bust.

The perp made furtive movements with his mouth indicating he might assault the Senator with troublesome questions. The guards had no choice but to react forcefully to the perp’s furtive movements and subdue the perp to ensure the Senator’s safety.

Afterward, we all met for coffee to make sure we all remembered it correctly.

So any old stupid policy that kills Amercan soldiers, arms their enmies, and keeps getting worse, not better is OK as long as somone claims it will avoid your hypotheical situation? Kinda explains a lot.

#31: Lets say you bring the troops home and the terrorists take over Iraq. Now they have 2 Million Barrels of oil a day at $60 barrel. $120 Million to buy weapons, train more terrorists. Now since they have Iraq they come the pond and visit you in your lovely town. What say you?

Contact: Ramona Joyce, 202-263-2982 or 202-445-1161 (cell), Joe March, 317-630-1253 or 317-748-1926 (cell), both of the American Legion

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 31 /U.S. Newswire/ — The National Commander of The American Legion called on Sen. John Kerry to apologize for suggesting that American troops in Iraq are uneducated.

“As a constituent of Senator Kerry’s I am disappointed. As leader of The American Legion, I am outraged,” said National Commander Paul A. Morin. “A generation ago, Sen. Kerry slandered his comrades in Vietnam by saying that they were rapists and murderers. It wasn’t true then and his warped view of today’s heroes isn’t true now.”

While addressing a group of college students at a campaign rally in Pasadena, CA., Monday, Kerry suggested that they receive an education or “if you don’t, you’ll get stuck in Iraq.”

“While The American Legion shares the senator’s appreciation for education, the troops in Iraq represent the most sophisticated, technologically superior military that the world has ever seen,” Morin said. “I think there is a thing or two that they could teach most college professors and campus elitists about the way the world works.

“And while we are on the topic of education, why doesn’t the senator and his comrades in Congress improve the GI Bill so all of today’s military members – reserves and guard included – can achieve the educational aspirations that the senator so highly values?” Morin said. “The senator’s false and outrageous attack was over-the-top and he should apologize now.”

“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they’re crazy,” John Kerry said today. “No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut-and-run policy in Afghanistan and a stand-still-and-lose strategy in Iraq.“

I read the story, many years ago, in a book called “The G.I. War”, which was mostly a compendium of stories by Stars and Stripes reporters, covering the war effort. I’ve forgotten the author’s name now, and the book is long out of print. What I posted here is based on my memory of the story as told in the book, I didn’t have time to find the book and re-read it before posting it, so I can only hope I got most of the details correct.

I’ve long thought that it would make a great movie. But I haven’t found any other sources for the story, and aside from hitting the newspaper archives in Chattanooga, I don’t think I’ll find any other sources. I suspect that this became a story which the locals decided rather quickly that they would prefer not to become a national story, as they didn’t want it to be a source of more “hillbilly humor” articles about their backward ways.

I posted this in response to the earlier quote by DaddyLove at 57, where Stark was quote as saying ““I spent four years in the Marine Corps. I’ll be damned if I’ll let my country be taken from me by thugs that are afraid of taking responsibility for themselves.” It reminded me that veterans have a particular axe to grind when our electoral process is tampered with, as they have paid a greater price for our freedoms than the rest of us.

But I specifically did not mean my post to make a point regarding the Rossi/Gregoire race, or even the Florida 2000 or Ohio 2004 race. I have strong opinions on the merits of those cases, but instead of voicing them here I just wanted to emphasize, to both parties, that if you interfere with American’s vote, our most basic right, there are consequences to be paid. If someone takes away our right to determine our government through the ballot box, then that only leaves the gun.

For everyone that refuses to believe that John Kerry made a slip of the tongue because he’s too”polished” for that; get over it. He has just as much right to an occasional speech mishap as Chimpy McFlightsuit, or are you one of the Americans that “works hard to put food on their family”?

Dear sir,
I wish to register my outrage.
Outrage I say!
I find it outrageous that Senator Kerry has shown the bad taste to insult uneducated war mongering, neocon fascists like myself for cheering on Vice Consul Cheney and the President when they launched our glorious war against brown skinned people. I always cheer for wars. Especially the pointless ones.

I can hardly be held to ridicule for supporting this war after my favorite media heroes told me to. And it’s especially frustrating to be teased in this fashion when so many other financially successful mouth breathers have continued to support it while it has spiraled out of control.

I didn’t go to schoold to learn. I went to school to join a fraternity, to network, to improve my skills at following directions and to find out what kind of books to claim to have read. It’s not fair for pointy headed liberal elitists like Senator Kerry to make fun of my choices. My father, my uncles, and all the members of their club assured me that my choices were good ones.

I insist on an apology. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I am very frustrated. My side should be winning, not losing. It isn’t fair. We all did what we were told and yet everyone is turning against us. We followed the instructions of those who were more successful than us. That’s what you’re supposed to do!
I want an appology! Now!

“Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we’re going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq.”

Republicans are running on a campaign that they disagree with George W. Bush, disagree with the war, and have never heard of Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, Bob New, Mark Foley, Tom Reynolds or Dennis Hastert. In fact, to listen to Republicans, they are in fact the best Democrats you can elect, except that they know that Nancy Pelosi is in reality a gay marrying communist who will eat your children.

Is it any wonder that the Republicans are going down. Especially when people are now just laughing off their fear campaign.

Commentby JDB— 10/31/06@ 1:23 pm

I liked this comment so much from a prior posting, I thought I would re-post it again. Hope you don’t mind, JDB.

The Republican trolls here well know that Kerry’s comments were a jab at Bush, not the soldiers in Iraq. They just have to try to twist it out of context. How else are they going to campaign, on their “success” in Iraq, the economy, or their superior management of disaster relief?

It seems the ACLU will representing some McGavick supporters who were barred from a Cantwell campaign appearance as long as they wore their McGavick t-shirts. Of course, they weren’t assaulted.

Personally, I think that was a bad idea. As long as someone doesn’t disrupt the event, they should be allowed to stay and participate as any other person. If others are allowed to greet a candidate and ask questions, the field should be open to all.

But I find it ironic that the Republicans are complaining about this one instance in the Cantwell/McGavick campaing. McGavick (and Reichart) have carefully avoided any such encounters by making most of his appearances private invitation-only events. The Bush administration has illegally used the Secret Service to evict those wearing anti-Bush buttons or tee-shirts from otherwise public gatherings, actually arresting them and then dropping the charges later (of course, they never would have held up in court).

Mike Stark, the fellow who was treated like a tackling dummy by Senator George Allen’s staff today, writes a letter demanding that Allen fire his staffers and saying he’s pressing charges against Allen himself.

“I spent four years in the Marine Corps. I’ll be damned if I’ll let my country be taken from me by thugs that are afraid of taking responsibility for themselves.”

For the insulting sexual remarks that he made about women in the service academies(West Point, Anapolis and the Air Force Academy. He went way beyond the line with them and refuses to apologize – to this day.

For example, he said that the Tailhook investigation was a “witch hunt.” Tailhook went on for years, drunken wild crazy male aviators who sexually assaulted and degraded women every year at their convention in Las Vegas. A female naval officer finally spoke up and the truth that came out was very ugly.

Sexual harassment in the military is a very real problem and it doesn’t get better when senior military officers refuse to accept that their behavior is unacceptable.

The Iraq war is another lovely example. What a goddamn stupid idea that was, and is. The 107 rationales offered to support it were all utterly demented, either because they were immoral, unachievable in any real universe, based on fever dreams, or all of these together. The administration decided to pretend that the irrational was rational, and the Wise pundits nodded sagely, and the nation’s foreign policy was duly and with great pomp & solemnity flushed straight into the shitter under a banner reading “Mission Accomplished.” And we’re supposed to pretend that this was all just some “oopsie,” that the willing propagandists of this debacle were and are just doing the equivalent of debating the relative merits of differing proposals for the motherfucking capital gains tax? People are fucking dead. A lot of people.

“It’s basic counterinsurgency,” said a military officer who has served in Baghdad and did not want to publicly disagree with the president’s stated policy. “You have to have a trusted, capable government.”

Rove and his minions on this board are just taking a quote of Kerry out of context for the purpose of deflecting attention from their own failures. The left does not hate our troops, never as. Commentby rhp6033— 10/31/06@ 2:57 pm

Like your support of Darcy TV ad taking Dave Reichert’s quote out of context. Funny how that works! Facts hurt the librul mind!

“For the Senator to suggest that today’s United States military is made up of uneducated men and women who didn’t ‘study hard’ or ‘make an effort to be smart’ is ridiculous and appalling,” AMVETS National Commander Thomas C. McGriff said Tuesday. “The men and women in uniform today make up the most advanced, highly-educated force ever seen. To suggest otherwise is a slap in the face to every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and Coast Guardsman who has spent countless hours working to better him or herself. This is also an insult to every person and organization who has worked tirelessly to provide our troops and their families with education benefits.

“Senator Kerry should retract his remarks and apologize immediately,” McGriff said after listening to comments made by Senator Kerry at a political rally in Pasadena, Calif., Monday. “It is especially outrageous coming from a member of the U.S. Senate.”

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 31, 2006
Filed at 9:21 p.m. ET

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A heckler who confronted Sen. George Allen at a campaign appearance Tuesday was put in a chokehold and slammed to the floor by three of the Republican’s supporters in an incident captured on video.

Mike Stark, a liberal blogger and first-year University of Virginia law student, approached Allen at an event in Charlottesville, loudly asking, ”Why did you spit at your first wife, George?” according to witnesses.

Three men, all wearing blue Allen lapel stickers, immediately grabbed Stark, dragged him backward and slung him to the carpet outside a hotel meeting room, according to video captured by WVIR-TV in Charlottesville.

Allen’s campaign said in a news release that Stark ”aggressively went after Senator Allen … screaming that he answer inappropriate questions.”

It also said Stark pushed an Allen staffer. ”Later, volunteers restrained him (Stark) and asked (him) to leave the building when he approached the Senator a second time, asking inappropriate questions.”

Stark said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press: ”I am a constituent. I am allowed to ask my U.S. senator questions.”

Stark said he approached Allen at the same time as reporters after the senator’s speech and first asked about two court summonses issued for Allen in Albemarle County in 1974. A county court index book reflects that they were issued, but the supporting documents were destroyed long ago.

Allen has said the two offenses were for fishing without a license and too many unpaid parking tickets.

Waddell, who lives in California, said she and Allen divorced more than 22 years ago, and because it was a personal matter they sealed the divorce records.

A new statewide poll conducted for CNN showed Allen’s Democratic challenger, former Navy Secretary Jim Webb, with a slight lead in a bitterly contested race that could help determine whether the GOP retains control of the Senate.

In a Monday posting on ”Calling All Wingnuts,” the blog Stark publishes, he hinted that he would attempt to provoke Allen before the TV cameras.

”Im also trying to `Roger and Me’ George Allen whenever I can,” Stark wrote, referring to director Michael Moore’s 1989 documentary in which he repeatedly tried to confront former General Motors’ chief executive Roger Smith about the company’s downsizing.

In August, Stark similarly approached Allen after a speech at a hotel near Staunton, loudly asking if he had ever used a common six-letter epithet against blacks.

That was two weeks after Allen, at a rally, referred to a Webb volunteer of Indian descent as ”Macaca,” which is considered by some to be a racial slur.

The right-wing smear machine and its traditional media enablers are apoplectic. I mean, John Kerry is a, um, junior senator not running for reelection! And he’s, um, a war hero who hates the troops! And um, we hate him because he’s John Kerry!

RHP @ #60 – do you have a link for more information on the history of that story? That’s fascinating, and I’d like to read more about it. It upholds a long-held belief of mine about how to take back rigged elections. ;-)

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Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!

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HA Commenting Policy

It may be hard to believe from the vile nature of the threads, but yes, we have a commenting policy. Comments containing libel, copyright violations, spam, blatant sock puppetry, and deliberate off-topic trolling are all strictly prohibited, and may be deleted on an entirely arbitrary, sporadic, and selective basis. And repeat offenders may be banned! This is my blog. Life isn’t fair.